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Hearts Threaten To Pull Out Of Top 4

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 Source: .

Dethroned league champions, Accra Hearts of Oak are not taking rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko’s demand for 400 million cedis appearance fees for the upcoming Coca Cola Top Four competition lying down. The Phobians have warned Ghalca that should Kotoko take a pesewa more than any of the four participating clubs, they will pull out of the tournament.

Hearts of Oak in a strongly worded letter to the Ghana League Clubs Association (Ghalca) yesterday advised the Association to abide by decisions reached between the four participating clubs on December 9.

The letter, which was signed by Administrative Manager, Ashford Tettey Oku said though the club trusted Ghalca to abide by the decisions reached at the December 9 meeting "should there be anything to the contrary we wish to emphasise strongly that our participation in the competition would be contingent on parity where no club would take a pesewa more than agreed for appearance fees or even 0.1% less in terms of sharing of gate proceeds as agreed.”

Kumasi Asante Kotoko has over the past week stated at various forums that it is demanding higher appearance fees for participating in the Coca Cola Top Four by virtue of its superior crowd pulling power.

Aside demanding an appearance fee of ?400 million the Porcupine Warriors also insist on taking 50 per cent of gate proceeds for matches played at home and 40 per cent for matches played away.

Ghalca is however offering 120 million appearance fees to each participating club plus 35 and 30 per cent of gate proceeds for home and away matches respectively.

In spite of the vociferous demands of the newly crowned league champions, Ghalca officials say they have not received official notice from Kotoko on their financial demands and are going ahead to officially launch the tournament at the Banquet Hall of the State house on Thursday.

Administrative Manager, Kudjoe Fianoo told the Soccer Express that once Kotoko had not communicated officially to Ghalca about their widely publicised demands, it could be taken that they will participate in the tournament without any qualms.

Source: .